The present invention relates to electroencephalography (EEG) and more particularly to methods for the rapid screening of large numbers of subjects.
At the present time there does not exist a program in the United States to determine, using rapid and widespread automatic evaluation methods, if learning or behavioral problems of school age children are due to organic brain dysfunction. A number of tests, administered within school systems, attempt to distinguish learning disabled children from other children. Some of these tests, for example, the Wechsler and Stanford-Binet scales have been criticized as being culturally biased, i.e., relying upon culturally determined skills such as the use of language rather than reflecting the innate capability of the child. Other of the tests have been criticized as relying upon the subjective judgments of the teacher or psychologist administering the test. In all cases, however, since the tests rely upon the cooperation of the child and the child's attitude and attention span, such tests may give results which do not reflect the child's mental ability. Those tests which are utilized to distinguish learning disabled children from other children do not differentially identify children having unusual brain activity, since these tests evaluate products rather than underlying processes.
It has been suggested, as a goal for the future, that it would be advantageous if there were some practical and accurate system by which large numbers of children "at risk" for learning or behavioral problems may be tested to distinguish between those with organic brain dysfunction and those with social, motivational or emotional problems. There have not been any serious attempts to provide such a program, however, since presently the only accepted testing method involves a complex and prolonged battery of tests given by a trained neurologist. Such tests may include an electroencephalogram (EEG) which would be visually interpreted by the neurologist based upon his years of training. The shortage of trained neurologists, the fact that extremely high percentages of school children are at risk, and the expense of a program based upon extensive individual examination of children by such neurologists has precluded large-scale diagnostic evaluation using EEG examinations. Further, subjective evaluation of children's EEG's has been shown to generate a high percentage of false positive findings and to be poorly replicable.
A series of prior patents and patent applications naming the inventor of the present application as their inventor provides a considerable amount of background information and details of certain portions of the system used in the present invention; and consequently these patents and applications are specifically referred to below and incorporated herein by reference. The patents and applications are as follows:
______________________________________ PATENTS Title Issue Date ______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,308 Method and System For Brain Wave Analysis Oct. 10, 1972 U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,297 Signal Averager Dec. 5, 1972 U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,274 Sensation-Cognition Computer Employing "T" Test Calculations Dec. 25, 1973 U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,215 Method of Testing the Senses and Cognition of Subjects Aug. 26, 1975 U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,696 Prevention of Distortion of Brainwave Data Due To Eye Movement or Other Artifacts Oct. 23, 1979 ______________________________________ APPLICATIONS Filing Date ______________________________________ Serial No. 873,118 System and Method For Electrode Pair Derivations in Electroencephalography Jan. 30, 1978 Serial No. 918,730 Method for the now Pat. No. 4,188,956 Analysis, Display and Classification of Multivariate Indices of Brain Function -- A Functional Electro- physiological Brain Scan June 26, 1978 Serial No. 918,731 Methods of now Pat. No. 4,216,781 Electrophysiological Testing June 26, 1978 Serial No. 974,445, Electroencephalo- now Pat. No. 4,201,224 graphic Method and System For Quantitative Description of Patient Brain States Dec. 29, 1978 ______________________________________
U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,586 to James Grichnik entitled "Electroencephalograph Display" shows a visual display panel actuated in response to digital signals. The panel indicates to the operator which of the electrodes are providing the signals being processed, i.e., "the actual montage of electrodes or the patterns in which the electrodes are being scanned."